Heart Decay: CVRSES’ Explosive Shoegaze & Emo Debut EP Traces The Contours Of Loss

Shoegaze has always been music for looking inward. Born in the late ’80s and early ’90s, it blurred distortion and melody until both collapsed into something dreamlike, a sound that became shorthand for melancholy and estrangement. The name itself came from critics observing how bands seemed to play with their gaze fixed on their pedals, lost in layers of sound rather than engaging outward. That image of musicians staring downward became a metaphor for the music itself — a dissociative meditation on disillusionment.

At its core, shoegaze is less about virtuosity than atmosphere — songs about heartbreak and disconnection submerged in a wall of sound that feels both immersive and isolating. That balance between euphoria and exhaustion defines the emotional vocabulary of shoegaze, and it is the same terrain that CVRSES map on their debut EP, 'Heart Decay'.

The Pune-based alternative-hardcore-shoegaze quintet distil the frenetic energy of their live set into three crushing but tender tracks. Blending the emo and post-hardcore angst of the early 2000s with the more self-aware melancholy of modern indie pop, the record offers a portrait of longing, and rage. “Conceptually, this EP draws on this heady cocktail of melancholy, rage, tenderness, disconnection, and yearning that we’ve been sipping on for a little while now,” guitar player Mikhail Khan explains.

Each track sketches a different face of that chemistry. 'Waves' drifts through the desolation of separation, its lyrics and textures circling the insanity of yearning for something corrosive, and the memory of attachment eroding long after it’s gone. 'Faith' takes that erosion further, describing the devastation of abandoning what once felt immovable — home, family, love, in order to salvage oneself. And with 'Marionettes', the band wrestles with grief head-on. It's a requiem for agony that still insists on the possibility of peace, even as it lets go of the sublime pull of self-destruction.

The weight of these songs is tempered by the band’s different entry points into the sound. “I don’t have fancy words to describe the EP, I just love the music and the process of making it and think it’s really special,” Aryan admits. For drummer Armando Khan, the heart of CVRSES lies in intensity. “Our sound is marked by anger, pain, joy, and the hardcore sensibilities of justice prevailing above all. Our experiences shape this sound. It’s a sound that we hope marks a new chapter for our music scene.”

With influences ranging from Enter Shikari and Turnstile to Deftones and Holding Absence, CVRSES approaches Heart Decay with an unflinching look at what remains after love, faith, and certainty have burned away. Each track traces a different contour of that loss, and together they leave the impression of music written from the ruins — pain that is still sharp, tenderness that lurks beneath, and anger that insists on being heard. What the EP offers is a vivid portrait of heartbreak in motion, one that catches the moment where grief and beauty coexist.

Follow CVRSES here and listen to the EP below:

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